Chapter 24: Blessing

“Lord, my Savior, if it be thy will, bring my feet safely to the ground again that I may continue to serve you. Purge my soul of hate and fear. Hold those I love in your loving care. Lord, thy will be done. Lord? Are you there?”

I pushed the little Cub away from the gas tanks and finished my walk-around. I knew every inch of this little plane. I’d restored it and kept it putting along in the air for over fifteen years. I thought I’d just go up a while and listen to the propeller beating against the wind. Maybe I’d do a loop over to Auburn and visit the Cord Museum. I was still a little numb. I’d invested so much of my life, my being, in that church.

“You aren’t going without me,” Bea said from behind me. She was dressed for flying in neat slacks and a blouse so we could stop to eat or shop anywhere. She carried a small case that I knew contained a change of underwear and toiletries for each of us so we could spend the night somewhere if we wanted. In her other hand was a thermos of coffee. Was she worried that I would fly away and leave her? Or that I might go up and not come down? Or that I might come down?

“My love, whither I goest.” I kissed her and then lifted her up to the door. I crawled in behind her and started the engine.

“And where would that be today?”

“How about lunch in Kalamazoo?” I suggested. “We could walk around the Air Zoo Museum for a while. Then maybe choose someplace else for dinner and spend the night?”

“Just the two of us, John. The two of us against the world.”

“I haven’t seen the ranch in over a year,” I said. What started out as a holiday flight had been extended. I’d called the office and simply said that I was taking time off as personal time to tend to family matters. It was common knowledge that my father was ill. I had a competent bank manager and as president could take some time away. It would give me a chance to see if he was ready to take over the operation.

We’d hopped a couple hundred miles a day, making it as far north as Mackinac Island, Michigan before we turned south and made stops in Ohio and even Lexington, Kentucky. We’d picked up a couple of changes of clothes and did laundry several times.

And I reconnected with my wife.

Bea and I had always had a comfortable relationship and had known passion in our younger days. But it seemed raising a family and dealing with business had taken a toll on our sex life. During our tour, we rediscovered what we’d been missing.

“It’s a wonderful idea, John. I miss the kids. And I haven’t seen the ranch since they finished all the work on it. Do you think they’d be too busy with their summer productions to have us visit?”

“From what Hayden said, there are more than forty of them living down there this summer. We’ll stay at the hotel and try to only visit when they aren’t working. They must take some time off,” I said. I thought for a minute, looking out at the ground moving beneath us. “I miss them, too. It’s going to be difficult having them living so far away. I wish we lived nearer.”

“Let’s not be too pushy,” Bea said. “I’m sure they are stretching their wings, and enjoying being out from beneath the eagle eye of Papa John.”

“Papa John? Is that how they think of me? An eagle eye on them?”

“Oh, they started calling me Mama Bea when I stayed down here with them last summer. It’s only logical that they would call you Papa John. It’s how they refer to all the parents.” She carefully avoided answering my question about the eagle eye. Was I always so critical?

“They are good kids, Bea. And young adults. I’m not going to stand in judgment over any of their choices. I’ve seen too much judgmentalism. I intend to simply welcome them into loving arms and support them in their life decisions.”

“Really, John? No matter what?”

“No matter what, I still love them. And if they are happy ... If Cassandra wants to let Mary into her life with Josh ... Well, it seems to be working for Hayden, Marilyn, and Anna. I can think of worse things.”

The moment for me to prove my words came sooner than I anticipated.

“There is something we want to tell you, Daddy,” Cassandra said.

“Oh? Does it have to do with the ring you are wearing?” I said. I’d seen the ring on her finger as she approached us sitting by the fire.

“Well, it could have. It’s not really mine. I just borrowed it to get the conversation going.” She took the ring off and handed it to Josh, who put it in his pocket. “He has to ask my father’s permission before he can ask me to marry him,” she said.

“And what makes you think I’d give this scalawag permission to marry my daughter?” I laughed. “I’ll have to think about it for a couple of years.” Marriage. They were planning to be a traditional married couple, not just handfasted in the clan rituals. This was good.

“That’s okay,” Cassie said. “We aren’t in a hurry. But I’m not giving you grandchildren until I’m married. Think about that, too.” That got us going. Jokes about being too young to be grandparents. I expected, knowing their propensity for the dramatic, that Josh would propose right then. “Mom and Dad, before Josh ever gets around to asking your permission, we need to tell you some other things.”

“Honey, I know you’ve been ... active together. I’ve put aside my judgment. I’ve done my best to raise you in the love of God and love of family. The way God guides you is not mine to judge.”

“Thank you, Daddy. I’ve always loved you and Mommy. And I believe I’ve grown in faith even more with a partner who shares it with me,” she said. I was so proud of her and her chosen mate. “We live under two different systems,” she continued. “We recognize that according to the church and the state, a marriage can only exist between one man and one woman. That’s why Josh will ask your permission to marry me and he will become my husband and I his wife. But our clan recognizes that unions may exist among more than two people and that even unions of the same sex are possible. We talk about our compañera, or boyfriends and girlfriends. We are what any other boyfriend or girlfriend would be. Kind of exploring. But we also have cónyuge within the clan. Cónyuge have made a long-term intimate commitment to each other. Except for all the church blessings and state licenses, we consider it about the same as a marriage, but we don’t use the same words so people don’t get confused. When two or more people agree that they are on track to become cónyuge but aren’t ready to quite make the commitment, we call them novia. It is the same to us as being engaged and being someone’s fiancée. Mommy and Daddy, I want you to meet my novia, Josh and Mary.” Well, Bea and I had just talked about it in the plane. I wasn’t surprised. “And Brian.” Bea started to giggle. What could I do?

“I should have known,” I sighed. “I did know, at least in part. Brian told me at your graduation that you would be Josh’s first wife.” I looked straight at Brian and scowled. “Don’t blame me. I tried to protect you from this.”

“Daddy!”

I’d made brave statements in the privacy of our plane, listening to the engine and the wind. I’m not going to stand in judgment over any of their choices. I intend to simply welcome them into loving arms and support them in their life decisions. It was time to put them in action—to prove I was the kind of man I wanted to be.

“Cassandra, my baby girl, I won’t try to understand and I won’t try to use all the terms associated with this. I will not refer to my sons-in-law or my daughter’s wife. When you are ready, I will simply refer to you all as my daughters and my sons.” Cassie hugged me and then Mary hugged me. Josh and Brian both kissed Bea on the cheek and she clamped them under her arms.

“I thought I’d only get one. Now I get three!” she said happily. Well, that summed it up. I now had two daughters and two sons.

It was considerably harder to tell them I wasn’t going back to the church Cassie had grown up in. When I explained, though, I think both of them were relieved they wouldn’t need to be married there. I sat for a long time at the campfire that night and Brian sat companionably with me. He was, indeed, the leader of this entire clan, what they called their patrón. I think I met every person living on the ranch and that must have been everyone in the clan. They’d even collected a few who hadn’t gone to high school with them. They were part of a clan, yes, but more than that, they were friends. I thought back on my life and realized that I had very few people I could call friends and most of them had become so only since the founding of the dating group.

And the young man next to me was one of them. Not just a son, but a friend. Eventually, I told him the whole story.

“I have no faith, Brian. I concede. You were right. I was wrong.”

“John,” he said and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t give up your faith. It wasn’t the problem. Still isn’t. That there were evil people that influenced things beyond your control—that isn’t your fault. You were always willing to listen. When I brought Cassie home as an impudent neighbor brat, you listened to what we had to say. You discerned the good and the bad and adjusted. When Josh was broken—I won’t say you fixed him—you loved him. You brought him back from the brink of suicide when he despaired over Denise’s death. Those children in that Sunday school class have seen a glimpse of love and respect. Once having seen it, they won’t settle for anything less. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that a new class enters high school with their own dating agreement.”